2013 Lunar Festival (January 27 - February 9) Guide

It's time for the first in-game holiday of 2013, the Lunar Festival--so everyone break out the fireworks, show a little respect for your elders, and come celebrate the (lunar) new year!

The Lunar Festival is held every year starting on a date that typically coincides with the Chinese New Year. 2013's Lunar Festival starts on January 27 and ends on February 9--a bit shorter than last year's. Ancestors of Azeroth are praised and honored by both Horde and Alliance, who then reward players with a special title, Elder <Name>, a celebration in Moonglade, and numerous Coin of Ancestry that can be used to purchase festive garb, patterns and fireworks!

While there were significant additions and changes in 2012, the Lunar Festival for 2013 doesn't have many changes. We've updated the post to reflect the new battle pet abilities the seasonal pets have gotten, and will update this guide once the holiday goes live if there are further changes.

Click the cut to get started!

Honoring Elders

Honoring elders is one of the main activities of the festival. In 2012's Lunar Festival, 9 elders have been added in zones new to Cataclysm.

RewardsFinding and honoring an elder will reward you with 75 reputation with all of your major city factions and a Coin of Ancestry, which can be used as a currency to purchase festival-related items. Honoring every elder will grant you 84 Coin of Ancestry, and over 6000 reputation (before bonuses). Players are reporting that you will not receive this reputation bonus applied to factions you are already Honored or above with.

Starting in 2012, honoring elders also grants experience and gold, making this a nice leveling boost for alts.

Complete List and Map

Tip: Clicking on the coordinates in the tables below will open a map of the elder's location in a lightbox. To view your character and your mouse cursor's coordinates on the in-game world map, you can use our very own addon, the Wowhead Looter (type /wl loc map).

Lunar FireworksStart & End:Lunar Festival HarbingerTo complete this quest you must purchase fireworks from a nearby Lunar Festival Vendor and use them nearby. The large fireworks clusters (such as Blue Rocket Cluster) will require use of a firework launcher, which can be found on the ground around the main Lunar Festival camps. Simply purchase and fire off the specified quantity of fireworks and return the quest to pick up the follow-up.You will receive a Lunar Festival Invitation which can be used to teleport to Moonglade by using it while standing in the 'Greater Moonlight' (a huge, white beam of light located in the main Festival camps). Once in Moonglade, you can teleport back to any major faction city by standing in the correct beam (which are distinguished by racial revelers around each beam). This invitation does have a duration but you can get a new one from the Lunar Festival Harbinger at any time during the festival.

Elune's BlessingStart & End:Valadar StarsongThis quest is actually flagged as a Raid quest in-game, though it shouldn't take very many level 70 or higher players at all to complete. Simply purchase (or acquire through quests or crafting) some rocket clusters from a Lunar Festival Vendor and head down to the Stormrage Barrow Dens in Moonglade, southeast of Lake Elune'ara. Fire off the fireworks in the nearby cluster launchers to alert the Minion of Omen to your presence. You can use the Elune's Candle obtained from Elune's Candle or purchased for 10 silver from Valadar Starsong to do additional damage to the Minions and Omen himself.Continue firing off rockets and defeating the Minions and eventually the demon Omen will spawn. He is a Level ?? (Boss) NPC so his actual level will most likely be 3 levels higher than the average level of your group. Even still, he is not a very difficult boss. After Omen is defeated, you must be near his corpse to obtain the Elune's Blessing buff required to complete the quest. You don't have to get credit on the kill. Receive the buff and return to Valadar to complete the quest, which rewards the nifty Elune's Lantern which can turn Solid Stone into Elune Stone - not amazing, but still pretty cool!

Coin of Ancestry Redemption

Valadar Starsong and Fariel Starsong can be found in Moonglade selling items using Coin of Ancestry as currency. All of the items they sell are Bind of Pickup--except for the new pets. While you can obtain only a maximum of 84 Coin of Ancestry per year, they have no duration--so if you have some left over from a previous year's Festival you can use them to obtain more rewards!

Elders of CataclysmHonor the Elders which are located in zones opened by the cataclysm.For this achievement, you must honor all 9 elders founded in zones added in Cataclysm. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above. This achievement is new to 2012.

Elders of Eastern KingdomsHonor the Elders which are located in Eastern Kingdoms.For this achievement, you must honor all 17 elders found throughout the Eastern Kingdoms. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Elders of KalimdorHonor the Elders which are located in Kalimdor.For this achievement, you must honor all 21 elders found throughout Kalimdor. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Elders of NorthrendHonor the Elders which are located in Northrend.For this achievement, you must honor all 18 elders found throughout Northrend (and, incidentally, you must also have the Wrath of the Lich King expansion). For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Elders of the DungeonsHonor the Elders which are located inside the dungeons.For this achievement, you must honor all 13 elders found inside various dungeons of Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Northrend. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Elders of the AllianceHonor the Elders which are located in the Alliance capital cities.For this achievement, you must honor all 3 elders located in major Alliance cities. As the elders are friendly to both factions, this achievement is able to be completed by both Horde and Alliance players. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Elders of the HordeHonor the Elders which are located in the Horde capital cities.For this achievement, you must honor all 3 elders located in major Horde cities. As the elders are friendly to both factions, this achievement is able to be completed by both Horde and Alliance players. For elder locations, refer to the tabs above.

Lunar Festival FineryPurchase a festive pant suit or festive dress with Coins of Ancestry.To complete this achievement, you must purchase either a festive pant suit or festive dress from Valadar Starsong with Coin of Ancestry obtained from honoring the elders. The festival clothing can be purchased for 5 Coin of Ancestry. There are three different dresses and three different pant suits that can be purchased, so you can get all of them to complete your very own Lunar Festival wardrobe (though the achievement does only require one). The clothing is Bind on Pickup, but items can be purchased by characters of any level so this is a great opportunity to deck out your bank alt in style!

Comments

Comment by Impala

Common trend, everyone saying, "Nothing new". Blizzard: you are slacking.

Comment by buddahbaker

on 2013-01-27T03:33:13-06:00

Sooooo agreed.

Comment by AuroraNova

on 2013-01-27T04:35:45-06:00

Like as not the reason for no pandaren elders is that the races of Pandaria did not participate in the War of the Ancients, and only at the end, during the implosion of the Well of Eternity that caused the Shattering, did they know something apocalyptic was happening in the outside world. (ref: Lorewalker Cho's lecture on the "Emperor's Burdens")

Comment by Drainmor

on 2013-01-27T05:18:02-06:00

I like all events and LOVE changes , But hate when its the same as last year and I have nothing to do over the event that'll keep me occupied while in the que for HC and LFR! Awesome Guide btw! :)

Comment by Lolus

on 2013-01-27T06:26:56-06:00

Guess Blizzard doesn't care much about this event, first one updated will be Midsummer Festival, included in 5.2 (~march)

Comment by hellos2478

on 2013-01-27T08:45:26-06:00

First order of business? Schematics!

Comment by Mallux

on 2013-01-27T10:14:47-06:00

I'm excited! The Lunar Festival is one of my favorite world events! :)

Comment by perculia

on 2013-01-27T10:36:53-06:00

There is new Noxy art for this guide, which imo is an exciting update :P

Comment by Adamsm

on 2013-01-27T10:37:53-06:00

There is new Noxy art for this guide, which imo is an exciting update :P

Lol, your turn as a model for her eh Perc?

Comment by perculia

on 2013-01-27T10:57:43-06:00

She did one of me last year, but this one is in a slightly-different style. Always a fan of moar arts.

Comment by Atratzu

on 2013-01-27T12:13:40-06:00

I agree with a majority of the comments, I keep checking these guides for changes in the holiday activities, I really think the holidays were one of my favorite parts of wow because it changed up the regular activities for a few weeks.

It was great to have something completely different to do aside from rep grind, do dungeons, bg's, and raid on the weekends.

And with a new expansion, I would kind of think they would want to implement the pandarian culture with the existing holidays. :-/

Comment by longslowgoodbye

on 2013-01-27T12:27:26-06:00

Begun to farm coins on ally for pet, realised I can just buy it on AH cheap.. Had collected 5 coins and then brain started to work.

Comment by khime

on 2013-01-27T13:12:48-06:00

It's ironic that the Lunar Festival, based on the Chinese New Year, was made to be a druidic festival in-game, so the Chinese-themed Pandaren, whose land broke away and disappeared before druidism took hold, don't actually celebrate this festival.

Comment by inzsayslaos

on 2013-01-27T13:40:00-06:00

Like all others I find it dissapointing they did nothing at all with the Lunar Festival when they could have really hit it out of the park with the Pandaren and this holiday. While I do find the xp an easy alt grab for lvling, I am still dissapointed that they added nothing new aside from 2 pets in all these years. With the new pet battle system it would have been great to have had a Pandaren questline leading to some sort of pet that tied in with the lunar festival. It seems odd to me that Pandaren is so segregated from this, almost disjointed. /dislike

Comment by Adamsm

on 2013-01-27T13:49:04-06:00

It seems odd to me that Pandaren is so segregated from this, almost disjointed. /dislike

Primarily because the Pandarens never fought in the War of the Ancients, which is what the Lunar Festival is all about?

Comment by inzsayslaos

It seems odd to me that Pandaren is so segregated from this, almost disjointed. /dislike

Primarily because the Pandarens never fought in the War of the Ancients, which is what the Lunar Festival is all about?

True, but with the Alliance and Horde all over Pandaria, you'd think they would bring a celebration like this there. It's like folks that come to the US bringing their traditions and celebrations with them. I would believe that just because they are now residing in Pandaria they wouldn't forgo all outward celebration of the event. Aside from the small set up at the Shrine, that's it. Just feels weird to me. There are numerous places like the Incursion in Karsang where this would've dropped in quite nicely.

Comment by Ariamodasu

on 2013-01-27T14:22:14-06:00

I don't think everythings been reset for the Elders. Just went to the Uldum pair which I know I did last year but neither are coughing up. Infuriating when I need to do some power leveling.

Comment by ploshkin

on 2013-01-27T17:01:00-06:00

Yeah, they don't seem to have reset the Cataclysm elders, so if you did them last year, you're out of luck (or at least, Lucky Red Envelopes - <cymbal crash>).